


(never) growing up

by frypans



Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: M/M, Newt is Peter Pan, a lil sad maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-25
Updated: 2015-01-25
Packaged: 2018-03-09 01:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3231590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frypans/pseuds/frypans
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas is five when he firsts meet Newt. He’s eight when Newt decides to stay on the Mainland. After so many years, Newt decides to leave for Neverland because there is one thing the Pan does not do. He never grows up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(never) growing up

Thomas was only five years old when he first heard the taps on his window. Curious he had crawled out of his bed in the late hours of the night, cautiously avoiding the creaks in his floorboards. He was just tall enough to peer through the curtains and out the frosty pane. His eyes widened in astonishment and even he knew in his young mind that what he saw was not right.

It was another young boy, possibly older than himself, with fair hair and a cheeky grin. He wore odd clothes and it was as if leaves were woven through but that wasn’t the oddest thing. The strange boy was not standing, which would be impossible as Thomas’ room was on the second floor, instead the boy was floating. The boy opened the french windows and Thomas jumped back as the stranger landed on the window sill.

“Who are you?” Thomas whispered in awe. “How did you fly?”

“People know me as Pan- rather the Pan. That’s not my real name of course.”

Thomas noticed how the the Pan had a strange accent, one from a different country. “But how do you fly?”

“Just think happy thoughts,” the Pan said as if it were plain normal to be flying.

“Happy thoughts?” Thomas wondering how he never thought about that. “Oh… But why are you here Pan?”

“My shadow has escaped.”

And that was only the first of many meetings.

x

By the time Thomas reached the age of eight, the pair were friends that played almost every night. Thomas’ parents merely assumed that this ‘Pan’ was an imaginary friend. 

“My parents don’t think you’re real,” Thomas said, one night in late September. 

Pan rolled over on his back. “Do you think I’m real?”

Thomas propped up on his elbows. “Of course I do! You’re my best friend but I do wish we could play during the day. School is lonely without you.”

Pan’s mouth pouted at the word school. “Maybe I could stay for awhile, Tommy.”

Thomas nodded excitedly. “Please do!”

“I guess I should use my real name then…”

Thomas perked up. 

“Newt.”

Thomas’ nose crinkled. “That’s not you’re real name is it?”

“It’s the only one I remember.”

Newt ended up staying for more than awhile, he was there for almost seven years. Not once did Thomas ask how he managed to slip the system or where he lived or where he was before. Newt never told him.

x

Thomas was fifteen when Newt left for Neverland.

“I don’t understand,” Thomas asked, “why do you have to leave?”

“I’m growing up.”

“I am too. What’s wrong with that?” To be true, Newt grew up before him, his voice deepening quicker than Thomas’ and he grew taller faster too.

“I don’t belong here, you know that, Tommy.” Newt loosened his school tie and threw it to the side. “I should have never stayed as long as I had, I’m sorry.”

“Newt-“  
“I’m running out of happy thoughts, I have to leave while I can.” Newt stepped closer to the very window he once came through seven years ago. 

In a way, Thomas knew the day would come when Newt had to leave again. He had always spoken of a place, ‘Neverland’, where no one could grow up. A place of lagoons with mermaids, pirates and fairies. He spoke of ‘The Lost Boys’ and how they’re waiting for him to return. Thomas knew time passed differently over there. In any other situation Thomas would have thought Newt escaped from a mental ward but he had seen him fly more than enough times.

“Oh… “ Thomas couldn’t keep the pain out of his voice. “B-but why are you running out of happy thoughts?”

“Because I’m growing up.”

Thomas knew that Newt meant that ‘growing up’ was having real life responsibilities, attending school and taking exams. A list Newt had no desire to fulfil. 

“Will you come back?”

Newt gave him a sad smile and Thomas felt his heart plummet. Newt didn't even have to answer for Thomas to know.

Newt took off his shoes and rolled his trouser legs up. “The Boys are going to laugh when they see me. I left as a little boy and in the space of seven days, I’m coming back a teen.”

A year was a day in this Neverland, Thomas thought, how surreal.

“Please let me leave with one happy thought, Tommy,” Newt whispered and Thomas walked- or rather ran across the room to the window sill where it all began.

Newt leaned in close to hi, pressing their foreheads together. “I want to give you a kiss.”

Thomas was shocked of course but even so waited for his kiss as he closed his eyes. However he didn't feel Newt's lips. He felt something cold being pressed to his palm and then Newt’s hands around his left hand.

His eyes opened and looked up to see Newt walking out his window and stepping into the night sky. He didn’t look back.

Thomas could feel his eyes pricking with tears and he refused to rub them. Instead he opened his left hand and gazed at the object Newt left him.

A thimble.

Thomas spent three days in his room after, refusing to come out. When he did, he wore Newt’s kiss around his neck.

x

The night before Thomas was to leave for college three years later he sat on the edge of his bed rolling the kiss in his fingers when he heard the tapping on his window pane. It was a sound he never thought he would ever hear again.

He lifted his head and saw Newt once again. He almost didn’t wait for Newt to step down from the window sill as he pulled him into a hug. “I thought you would never come back,” he murmured into his neck.

“How long was I gone for?”

“Three years. I graduated,” Thomas replied as he pulled back, still keeping his arms on Newt’s shoulders. “I leave for college tomorrow. It’s in the city actually.”

Newt’s face fell. “You want to grow up,” he breathed.

“Not without you. Come with me Newt, to the city.” Then Thomas noted Newt’s expression. "You didn’t come back to stay did you…”

Newt shook his head. “I came back for you. It’s not too late to come with me. To Neverland.”

“I’ll never grow up,” Thomas said.

“You say it as if it’s a bad thing,” Newt smiled.

Thomas stared at him and the more he did, the idea tempted him. He could go and never deal with the prospect of growing up and live eternally young. But then he thought of his mother, how she was going to find his bed empty the next morning.

“Newt, I don’t think I can go, my family-“

“Tommy please.” Newt looked at him with such longing and sadness. “I want you to come with me.”

Thomas clutched him closer and pressed his lips to Newt’s forehead. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “Newt, I’m so sorry.”

Once again, Newt slipped through his fingers and into the night.

Thomas didn’t sleep that night, tracing circles over Newt’s kiss. The next morning mother didn’t question why his eyes were swollen. And at his dorm, Thomas didn’t wear the kiss around his neck, instead he hung it by his window that looked over the city, in the hopes that maybe, Newt would visit.

But he didn’t.

x

It wasn’t until Thomas was twenty-three and home for Christmas did he see Newt again.

On Christmas Eve, his eyes were drawn to the falling snow outside his old bedroom window and he made out the figure floating in the dark. “Newt,” he whispered as the boy stepped through the window, looking the same, staying eighteen. “You left longer this time.”

“I didn’t, you couldn’t see me anymore. I was at your window every night there.”

Thomas felt like his heart shattered. “I- I- Are you sure?”

“You’re growing up.”

“I don’t want to.”

Newt grimaced. “I don’t want you to either.”

“Take me.”

Newt’s eyes widened. “What?”

“To this Neverland, take me Newt.”

“What about your family?”

Thomas’ fists clenched and he buried his face into his hands. “They’re the only reason I didn’t go the first time. But this time… I don’t think they’ll mind. They’ll understand. Please, Newt.”

Thomas felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. 

“Tommy, they’ll mind.”

Newt watched as tears filled Thomas’ eyes and he hugged him for the longest time. “Can I give you something Newt?” Thomas whispered. “Just before you go.”

“What is it?”

“A thimble.”

Newt knew Thomas was smiling as he said it.

Their kiss was short, it was more like a peck on the lips but Newt knew that if Thomas were to kiss him again, Newt would stay and grow old alongside him and so he stepped away. He did not dare to look at Thomas as he left through his window and he did not want to look back. 

However Newt did come back, multiple times, but by the time Thomas turned twenty-seven he could not see the boy who never grew up. 

That was when Newt returned to Neverland for good, making a vow to himself never to return to the Mainland. Not even in Thomas’ final days.

**Author's Note:**

> I may write one from Newt's POV so I can include The Lost Boys c: idk yet so let's see~ Thanks for reading!


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